A School in Maple
by Draco Lupus
Summary: If you lump together teenagers, a whole pile of weapons and tons of bloodthirsty monsters, what do you get? A school for combat. And of course, in these kind of schools, there are always friends and enemies and what not. And adventures. Especially adventures. There wouldn't be a story otherwise, right? Rated T for foul language. (Story restarted on 15/4/2016)
1. Chapter 1

**Alright, this is my first story! Please review!**

Edit (15/4/2016): Hmm, even after extensions the chapter's only 1.5k words long... Well, hopefully the other reworks will be longer. See you!

* * *

In Ellinia, the city above the trees, the sun had just started to rise. The morning's atmosphere was peaceful, filled with the chirping of cicadas.

"Hey, Ascion! We're gonna be late if you don't wake up! ASCION!"

In front of a house suspended rather precariously from a giant tree, a young, female archer could be seen yelling at said house. Thankfully, the house was located at the edge of Ellinia and it was still early in the morning, so there was nobody around to hear her yell, apart from the resident of the house she was yelling at.

Which was good thing, because she had quite the set of lungs.

A thump sounded out from inside the house, followed by a muffled reply and the sound of bare feet running across wood. Five minutes later, the door was thrown open.

A boy rushed out of the house, nearly slipping on the grass-like leaves of the branch that has become his front lawn. His black hair was sticking up in all directions, and it was evident that he only had time for a very rushed shower, if the dampness of his hair and clothes were anything to go by. In fact, he was still buttoning his shirt when he flung open the door.

"Sorry I'm late, Kaede, how much time do we have left?" the boy named Ascion Wolf asked, slightly out of breath.

The archer, Kaede Hayashi, just raised an eyebrow. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

Ascion nodded. "Yeah, I did-"

_*growl~*_

"... Okay, I didn't." Ascion admitted. "But whatever, didn't you say we're going to be late-"

"Ascion, you _do_ have a clock in your house, don't you?" The orange haired archer interrupted.

"Yeah, why?"

"Did you even look at it?"

Seeing how suspiciously calm his friend was, Ascion turned his head towards the clock hanging on the wall.

It read 7.20 a.m.

School starts at 8 a.m.

Given that it only takes ten minutes to walk to school and another five to reach the classroom, he still had twenty five minutes before school started.

Ascion turned back to Kaede and glared at the orange haired girl, his shoulders slumping and a sigh escaping his lips as the adrenaline rush faded. "You are such an ass sometimes." He groused, walking back into his house.

Kaede snickered as she followed him in. "I'm actually surprised you fell for it again. How many times does this make now?"

"One hundred and fifty two." Ascion grumbled as they reached his small kitchen. "And I only started counting last year."

"It's not my fault that you keep getting tricked by the same old thing for three years straight. Besides, you really _do_ need to start getting up early."

"But I don't wanna..." Ascion whined, his tiredness settling back in as he started pulling things out of the fridge. "I hate mornings..."

Kaede rolled her eyes. "Given that you're aspiring to be an Adventurer, you'll have to start making it a habit to wake up early _someday_."

"And that someday won't be today. Or any day for the rest of middle school, probably." Ascion grumbled as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. He slowly assembled a sandwich and got himself a glass of orange juice. He slid another glass to Kaede.

"Thanks." Kaede chirped before she downed her glass of juice in one shot.

Ascion sleepily munched on his sandwich, keeping an eye on the clock as he slumped into a chair. He yawned again. "I really am _not_ a morning person." He muttered, rubbing his heavy eyelids.

* * *

Kaede sighed, getting up from her seat. It was already 7.35, which meant that it was about time for them to go. Pity, she really _did_ enjoy quiet mornings like this. The silence was strangely comfortable.

"Ascion, we should get going." She said as she got up from her seat to deposit her empty glass into the sink.

Ascion didn't reply.

Kaede frowned, turning around. Ascion was still slumped in a sitting position, and his hand was still gripping on to his almost empty glass.

"Ascion?" Kaede walked over to her best friend, her frown giving way to exasperation when she realised something she probably should have noticed earlier. She slapped her palm over her face and groaned.

Ascion's eyes were closed.

_Dammit! I forgot this idiot can fall asleep while sitting upright!_

* * *

"-ion! Ascion, we're really gonna be late! Get up!"

"Go 'way..." Ascion mumbled. "Not ge'ing tricked 'gain..."

"Ascion! It's 7.50! _Get UP_!"

Ascion mumbled something incoherent. Before he could do anything else, he feel a pull on his collar as ice was dumped into his shirt.

"BLOODY FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!" He screamed as he jumped to his feet, sleepiness forgotten as he tried to get rid of the ice. "WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK!"

Finally managing to untuck his shirt and let all the ice slide out, Ascion glared at Kaede, who was just closing the door of his fridge. "Kaede! What was that for?!"

Kaede grabbed his hand. "We're _late_." She hissed.

Without waiting for a response, Kaede took off, dragging Ascion behind her. This left the boy spluttering and stumbling as he tried to keep up with his best friend.

Though Ascion was abnormally fit for a mage, he still couldn't match up to Kaede's speed. Which was to be expected, given that Archers are regarded as one of the most dexterous classes.

Quickly pulling out his staff, Ascion started to cast [Teleport], allowing both Kaede and himself to move faster. Kaede didn't even slow down when she was suddenly teleported, continuing to rush down the thick tree branches that formed Ellinia's footpaths.

As they neared the twin metal gateways that were located right beside the mayor's tree-house, Kaede shouted "Maple Middle School!" Immediately, a hum was heard as a swirling purple portal formed in the center of the gateway on the right.

The metal gateways were known as the Mirrors of Dimension. It was just large enough for an average adult to comfortably walk through, and it allows for instantaneous travel between two Mirrors. They come in pairs, one for departing and the other for arriving, and there was a set in almost every town. Several schools have them as well.

The school our two protagonists are attending happen to be one of them.

Kaede jumped through the portal, dragging Ascion along. She landed on the dirt of the school grounds gracefully, although Ascion nearly fell flat on his face. She immediately took off again, still dragging the poor magician along.

"Where's the classroom, Ascion?!" Kaede shouted her question.

"What?!"

"Directions to the classroom, please!" Kaede replied as they dashed into the school building.

Ascion started belting out instructions as Kaede careened through the almost empty corridors. More than once, Ascion had to cast [Teleport] to stop Kaede, and by extension himself, from crashing into someone else.

Kaede glanced at her watch as they continued their running/teleportation. "Five minutes!" She called as she made a sharp turn, almost slamming the black haired mage into a wall.

"Watch it!"

"Sorry!"

Before long, the two teenagers reached their classroom, Kaede skidding to a halt right outside. Carried by the momentum, Ascion was flung several meters away, landing unceremoniously on his face.

"Couldn't you have slowed down more... gracefully?" Ascion grumbled as he got up, carefully rubbing his nose.

"Why didn't you just [Teleport] before you hit the ground?"

"I'm out of mana. I already cast more than twenty [Teleports]. If we had encountered another person and you didn't managed to swerve in time, we would be spending our first day of school at the infirmary."

"Oh. Sorry." Kaede apologised. "On the bright side, we're here now!" She glanced at her watch. "With three minute to spare!"

"Good. I need to sleep." Ascion said tiredly.

Kaede rolled her eyes. "You're _always_ sleeping in class."

"I'll be paying attention if the teachers actually teaches something I don't know." Ascion shot back as the two of them made their way through their new, and very,_ very_ loud classroom. "Until then, you can't make me _not_ sleep."

"At least stay awake till homeroom's over."

Ascion dropped into a seat by the window, Kaede sitting beside him. "No promises." He replied, smiling cheekily.

"It's in, like, _two minutes_."

"In my opinion, that's two extra minutes that could be spent sleeping."

"Ascion!"

Ascion stifled a laugh. "I'm kidding, kidding! Oh, the teacher's here."

A man with dark blue hair and fair skin stalked into the classroom. "Oi brats! Settle down! NOW!" The man roared at the noisy students. The commanding and threatening tone of his voice instantly caused the classroom to fall silent.

Ascion instantly liked that man.

The man nodded in satisfaction. "Good. My name is Benjamin Lee, and I'm your new homeroom teacher. I don't particularly give a damn about what you want to call me, but it better not be anything stupid. Self-intros can wait till tomorrow, but I'll be taking roll call now."

"I like this guy." Ascion muttered to Kaede.

"Why, because of his 'no fucks given' and 'I don't have time for bullshit' attitude?"

"You know me too well."

"Alright!" The new homeroom teacher shouted, closing the class register with a snap. "Everyone's been accounted for! Well then, welcome back to school, hope you'll study hard, yada yada yada. Personally, I think all of you can make do without a welcome back speech, so I'll just save you all the boredom. Oh, and if any of you happen to be facing any issues, feel free to look for me to work something out. Now, free period, but keep the noise down!"

The students cheered as they resumed their mingling. Benjamin simply sat down and got comfortable.

Kaede blinked. "Wow, this guy is _really_ frank. And blunt. It's kinda refreshing."

"Tell me about it." Ascion mumbled, his head already on his table. "Shake me awake if anything interesting happens, Kaede..."

"Ascion?!"

"G'night."

And on that happy note, Ascion was out like a light.

* * *

**Um, so is this good? Bad? Again, please review, but don't flame! Thank you!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the second chapter! Sorry, I wanted to upload this earlier, but my cousin who's beta-ing for me was swamped by schoolwork. Or she was lazy. Well, on with the story!**

**Edit (19/5/2016): Rework complete!**

* * *

"Ascion, get up!"

_Hmm?_ Ascion thought hazily through his sleep induced mind. _Probably nothing..._ Then he drifted back to the comfortable world of sleep.

"Ascion! The teacher's approaching your table!" Kaede desperately shook the boy but to no avail.

The math teacher glared down at the sleeping boy. Kaede, sensing that it was useless to try to avoid trouble by then, gave up trying to wake Ascion and instead prepared herself. For what? Well...

Ascion can be quite snappy if you suddenly wake him up for pointless reasons. Like paying attention to classes he had already understood.

Another thing about waking Ascion up. When trying to wake him up, you do not, under any circumstances, shock him awake. Soft voices and gentle shaking were fine, but anything worse was just asking for trouble.

"Acsion Wolf!" The teacher barked, slamming his palm against the boy's table.

Which was, of course, exactly what the teacher did.

With a yelp, Ascion was forcefully wrenched from his peaceful sleep, his mind immediately on high alert.

_Status, fine, weapon, left, disruption, directly in front, shape, human, action, restrain._

This was Ascion's entire thought process as he quickly dissected his current situation with his mind still half asleep. Then, he reacted.

Hands closing around his staff, which he had placed against the wall on his left, Ascion disappeared in a flash of blue light. He reappeared behind the startled teacher, his arm curling around the man's neck in a choke hold as he kicked his teacher behind the knees, forcing him to kneel. His staff glowed ominously as he pressed it to his teacher's lower back.

This entire sequence of events, from Ascion waking up to him restraining his teacher, took a grand total of five seconds.

"Ascion." Kaede said tiredly as the boy blinked rapidly, trying to clear his mind of sleep. "Please, let go of the teacher."

"Huh?" Ascion asked eloquently. It was then that he realized that he was not under attack. Rather, he was still in class, and had essentially assaulted his teacher.

Not that he particularly cared at the moment, especially after had he deduced what had happened.

Letting go of his math teacher, Ascion stomped back to his seat, slumping down into it. His adrenaline rush had quickly faded away, and was instead replaced by large amounts of irritation and a tad bit of sleepiness.

"This had better be important." He muttered under his breath. Sighing deeply, Ascion turned tiredly to his teacher, who had stood up and regained his composure. "How may I help you, sir?" Ascion asked.

"Wolf!" The teacher shouted angrily, ignoring Ascion's question. "You dare assault your teacher?!"

Ascion rubbed his temples. "My apologies, sir, but as you can see, I do not react well to sudden shocks. It's part of my training."

The man's snorted. "Why do you even need such useless training for?"

Ascion stared at the man flatly. "Are you being serious here? It's ambush training, for situations like, say, being attacked in the middle of the night while we're out camping."

"I don't see your point." The man countered.

Ascion's stare turned, if possible, even flatter. He was struggling to stay polite, but his irritation at being woken up had only grown since then. The teacher wasn't making it easier to reign it in either. "Sir, is this how you react to an opponent who's wielding a weapon and charging towards you? By saying hello?"

The man flushed, but didn't say anything.

Ascion sighed again. "So, why did you wake me up for, sir?"

"I want you to stop sleeping and pay attention in my class." The teacher replied stiffly.

Ascion slapped his palm over his face and groaned. "Sir, I've already covered all of this myself."

"Well, if you think you're so smart, why don't you answer the questions on the board?" The man challenged.

Wordlessly, Ascion stood up, walking over to the whiteboard with a slouch. He grabbed the marker, staring blearily at the whiteboard. A few seconds passed, with Ascion doing nothing but stare at the questions.

Just as the teacher was about to break out into a lecture about paying attention, Ascion covered his mouth and yawned, before proceeding to answer all five questions on the board without even pausing to think or use a calculator.

Completing everything in a span of a minute, Ascion dropped the marker back onto the teacher's table and walked back to his own. The teacher stared at the board, gaping and slack jawed.

"There, proof." Ascion said, his eyelids half closed with weariness, before he sat back down.

The maths teacher shook himself out of his shock, quickly mumbling a "Thank you for your assistance, Mr Wolf" before resuming lessons as calmly as he could.

That is, until Ascion realized that his body now refuses to fall asleep even though he was still tired due to the sudden burst of adrenaline earlier on.

The poor math teacher could feel a sharp, murderous glare focused on him for the rest of his lesson.

* * *

Lunchtime arrived.

After the slightly pale math teacher (combat school teacher or not, Ascion had a _very_ unsettling glare) left the classroom, Ascion dropped his glare, sighed, and went right back to sleep.

Luckily for the boy, the next few teachers had experience dealing with him from last year, and thus ignored the sleeping boy as they conducted their lessons.

After all, it was hard to stay annoyed at the boy who despite his sleeping, always handed up his homework on time, which was more than could be said for the majority of the class.

Back to the story. After some difficulty, Kaede managed to wake Ascion up. The two of them wandered out onto the school grounds, looking for a place to have their lunch.

Eventually, the duo settled for a lone tree situated near the school lake. Kaede lithely scaled the tree and settled on a thick branch while Ascion simply teleported himself up, sitting down next to Kaede.

"I missed eating together like this." Ascion sighed as they started on their packed lunches.

Kaede frowned. "Ascion, we just ate together last week. Remember? When we went mushroom hunting?"

"Of course I remember. That's the time a Blue Mushroom almost gave you a concussion." Ascion smirked, remembering how Kaede had shrieked and almost fell flat on her face when a mushroom shaped monster had hit her in the upper back.

Kaede blushed as she remembered that embarrassing incident. "Shut up, Ascion."

"Duly noted. Anyway, what I meant was that it has been awhile since we had peace at lunch. Most of the time, when we're outdoors, we would be on edge due to the fear of being ambushed by monsters." Ascion explained before he started to wolf down his packed sandwiches at an almost obscenely fast pace.

Kaede rolled her eyes, starting on her own lunch at a more sedate pace. "Ascion, calm down. Your lunch isn't going anywhere, and it's not like we're pressed for time."

Ascion swallowed his last bite before speaking. "Sorry, bad habit."

The two teenagers were soon chatting away contentedly, ignoring the cold, fearful, or sometimes murderous looks thrown their way.

Kaede sighed after the eighth group of students who passed under their perch hurried by, avoiding eye contact with the two teens. "Honestly." Kaede grumbled. "You would think that combatants-in-training would know better than to believe in rumours, especially rumours about a pair of thirteen year old teenagers."

As Ascion and Kaede were at the centre of numerous rumours and gossips, most students tend to shy away from them. These rumours included being suspected of murder, vampires, cruel fighters, and even a mad scientist. Although the part about being a mad scientist probably only applied to Ascion.

However, it wasn't like they looked or behaved any differently from the rest of the students.

Ascion had black hair that was just long enough to touch his shoulders, lined with a single streak of white at his fringe. He had blue eyes and perpetually pale skin that didn't seem to tan no matter how long he spends under the sun. He was of average height, at 1.57 meters tall.

Kaede had long, bright orange hair tied up into a simple ponytail. She had bright emerald eyes, and was slightly tanned. She was also of average height, at 1.54 meters.

All in all, the two teenagers were nothing out of the ordinary, considering the fact that people in the school had hair and eye of every colour one could possibly think of.

No, it was because when they were younger, they were deemed as weak, making them prime targets for bullies. However, they were now so good at fighting it was well nigh impossible to pick on them physically anymore.

Ascion, despite his laughably low mana reserves, has mastered the basic spell [Energy Bolt] to such a level that he could easily beat the advanced magic of other students in terms of destructive power. He was also very fit, hence able to dodge attacks and move around quickly without the use of magic. Ascion could even use his staff as a good melee weapon.

Kaede, compared to most marksmen, takes a longer time to fire an arrow. But when she shoots, she never, ever misses. Her arrows had always struck the bullseye, so much so that during practice, she had split her arrows down the middle with her shots fifteen times from three hundred meters. She was also adept at close combat, her kicks strong enough to split a panel of solid wood in half.

All in all, in comparison to the rest of the student body, Ascion and Kaede were definitely in the upper ranks in terms of their strength. This helped to keep bullies who rely solely on strength at bay. However, manhandling isn't the only form of bullying out there.

And so, the rumours started.

"They're idiots." Ascion said flippantly. "I don't exactly care what these idiots think."

Kaede sighed. Ascion didn't always have this jaded outlook towards people, but after this long...

Well, let it be known that even the nicest people have their limits, so there'll eventually come a point where they snap.

"Well then, let's not sit here for the rest of lunch." Ascion said cheerily, disappearing in a flash of blue light. "Let's go for a walk!" He called up to Kaede from the ground.

Kaede smiled, sliding smoothly off her perch and landing lightly. "Yeah, sure."

As they wandered across the school grounds aimlessly, the other students avoided them like the plague. Suddenly, Ascion spotted something of interest. Something few people enjoyed these days, in favour of computer games and studying.

Chess.

Ascion immediately made a beeline for the table, Kaede following close behind, though they stopped a few feet away. When the players saw them approaching, one of them was visibly uncomfortable, and probably only stayed in her seat because her opponent did the same.

The other, a white haired boy, merely nodded in acknowledgement before turning back to the game.

Ascion was rather surprised. Nobody in the school had ever acknowledged him so casually, apart from certain teachers. "Hey, Kaede, who is he?" He whispered to his companion. They were far enough from the table that their whispers didn't reach either players.

Kaede was similarly surprised. "I'm... not very sure. I think he's in our class, but neither of us have ever really taken note of our classmates."

Ascion nodded. "It might be nice to have another friend."

"You think so?"

"I don't know. I think we should, you know, find out more about him first. Make contact, get to know him better, the usual."

"Right. I'll be gathering information then."

To the two teenagers, "making friends" was a subject they never took lightly. They were far too removed from how "normal" works that looking up information on a potential friend was considered "normal".

After all, it wouldn't do if your supposed friend tried to set you up for an ambush.

Kaede still had the scars to prove it.

"Checkmate." The duo turned back to the chessboard at that proclamation to see that the white haired boy had indeed finished the game, leaving his opponent dumbfounded.

"O-One more time!" The girl exclaimed, but the boy shook his head.

"Time is up." He replied before starting to pack up his chess set.

"He's good." Ascion muttered.

"At what?"

"Chess. I was keeping an eye on the board. He baited his opponent into trapping herself." Ascion explained as they watched the boy walk away, with the slightly depressed girl trailing after him.

"For you to be praising someone at chess, he must really be something." Kaede remarked. "You're no slouch at it yourself."

"I'm not that good. I'm only at the Master rank."

"… Isn't that still very good?"

Ascion shrugged. "Yeah, but that was some time ago. I haven't played chess for more than three months, so I'm not sure if I'm still at that standard. I know that white haired guy is though."

Kaede frowned. "Wait, didn't he say that time was up earlier? What did he mean by that?"

Ascion thought about it. "I'm not actually sure..."

Kaede's face paled as she quickly whipped out her phone. The digital display indicated that lunch ended in five minutes.

"Kaede?" Ascion asked in concern when he noticed her face paled. "Are you feeling alri-"

Kaede clamped her hand around Ascion's wrist. "We're going to be _late_." And without another word, she took off, dragging the poor boy behind her.

* * *

**Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Next chapter is up! By the way, for mesos, I'm comparing them to Japanese yen, so 1 meso = 1 yen.**

**Edit (10/6/2016): Edit's done, please check out the end note, it's (mildly) important.**

* * *

Chapter 3:

"Why are we doing this again?" Ascion grumbled as he and Kaede walked towards their destination.

"Because Instructor's willing to pay us well and we've got nothing better to do." Kaede rolled her eyes, having repeated this to Ascion a couple of times now.

Right after school had let out, Ascion and Kaede had decided to head over to Kaede's house in the Village of Archers, Henesys, to hang out.

Or at least, that was the plan, before they were stopped by the Bowman Instructor, Athena Pierce, on their way home.

Just as they passed by the board of quests located near the Instructor's house, Athena herself had approached them to ask for a favour.

Apparently, the number of golems that reside in the stone ruins near the Henesys Training Grounds had been growing rapidly, so Athena had issued a quest to help thin down their numbers.

However, the large numbers of golems had scared off most of the rookie adventurers – adventures that have yet to graduate from middle school – while the ones who are a part of or had already graduated from Maple High School found the quest to be beneath them.

Killing 500 golems was a rather tedious task, after all.

Athena was just about to take down the quest and complete it herself when she had spotted Ascion and Kaede.

The woman had immediately confronted the duo, hoping that they would take on the job. None of the archers that were actually willing to listen to her were in Henesys at the moment, and the remaining archers were, in her words, "snot nosed brats who are too damn arrogant". With the exception of Kaede, of course, who was the only rookie that still respected her even after going pass level 30.

When Ascion had asked Athena what she thought of Kaede then, she just replied "Same as ever; a respectful girl who's really good with a bow but is also scarily good at wringing every last Meso out of me."

Ascion had slapped his hand over his mouth to hide his snickering. Kaede pouted.

Right before she somehow managed to guilt-trip, blackmail and threaten the Instructor to the point that Athena ended up doubling their pay. Ascion just laughed harder.

He wasn't laughing now, though.

"Five hundred Golems of any type. Five hundred." Ascion grumbled. "It's gonna be sundown by the time we're done."

Kaede sighed. "It's not like you have anything to do, nor is it going to affect you too much."

"But it is going to affect me badly." Ascion disagreed.

"Oh?" Kaede raised an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"Because my ears are going to bleed from hearing your countless complaints about not being able to take a bath."

Kaede casually kicked a pebble by her feet, causing it to shoot up. She caught it, and without hesitation, flicked the rock at Ascion's head with a practiced twist of her wrist.

The pebble connected with a thud. Music to her ears, although the same could not be said for her target.

"Ow!"

"Shut up, Ascion." Kaede huffed, but didn't deny the statement.

As the two friends continued their banter, they reached the Golem Ruins.

Before they entered, the two of them took a small break on the branches of a small tree. "It's 4pm." Kaede noted after checking her phone. "I would like to be home by seven, but I don't think we can make it."

"Probably not." Ascion agreed. "Your bath would just have to wait."

"Honestly, Ascion, I'm not that bad."

"I know. You're the worst."

Kaede slugged Ascion in the arm.

"The last time I complained, we had been camping and thus hadn't bathed for more than twenty four hours." Kaede reminded him. "I am _not_ one of those girls that have to take a bath every few hours.

Ascion raised his hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. Stop glaring at me like that, just joking."

The two friends stared at each other for a few more seconds, before they both burst out laughing. "Well, we've rested enough." Ascion grinned, sliding off the branch. "Let's get to hunting!"

Kaede backflipped off the branch, tucking her legs in to perform a somersault before landing cleanly on her feet.

"Showoff." Ascion muttered. Kaede stuck out her tongue at him as the two drew their weapons. While Kaede drew her bow from her makeshift "sheath" that consisted of two circlips superglued to her quiver, Ascion seemed to pull his staff out of thin air.

While this may seem amazing to a passing observer, pulling items out of "thin air" was actually nothing too hard to do. After graduating into a full-fledged adventurer, all adventurers will be taught how to create their own personal Dimensional Pocket, which functions as a bag of sorts. They're not exceptionally large, probably big enough for around two weapons and a few potions.

Nobody except for highly powerful Archmages have managed to make it any bigger.

Still, why would Ascion, a middle schooler, know of a spell that was taught to adventurers that have already graduated from high school? Simple.

He had a lot of time to read. It _is_ his favorite hobby, after all.

"Well, then." Ascion tilted his head, feeling the satisfying crack in his neck. "Let's get to work."

* * *

The sun had completely set by the time the two were done. Mountains of rubble surrounded the two adventurers-in-training as they rested on the pile of stones. In a day or so, the golem remains – save a few pieces – would simply vanish back into the earth, as was normal for all monsters.

Which was good, or else clean up would have been real troublesome.

"It's been a while since we had to fight that much, and for so long." Ascion commented lightly, his breathing heavy.

"Did you keep track of how many we killed?" Kaede asked. "I think that we're done, but an exact number would be nice."

"537."

Kaede stared at Ascion flatly.

Ascion caught her gaze. "What?"

"You know, I've never actually figured out how you've managed to keep track of the numbers while fighting at the same time."

Ascion smirked, spreading his hands out in front of him. "Magic." He said mysteriously.

Kaede rolled her eyes. "And you ask me why I prank you." She muttered.

"Jokes aside, it's because I'm good at multitasking." Ascion answered.

"But still, _in the middle of a fight that lasted more than three hours?_"

Ascion shrugged. "Meh, I'm just that good."

Kaede sighed. "Well, whatever. By the way, are you alright, Ascion? You're looking slightly pale. Your stamina was never very good, and you were tossing out quite a few spells earlier. Your mana should have hit rock bottom by now, shouldn't it."

Ascion blinked rapidly. "Yeah… my exhaustion's starting to settle in… The sky's not supposed to be green, right?"

Kaede blanched. "I think you should lie down, Ascion."

"Yeah, I think so too." Ascion agreed, his voice starting to slur as if he was drunk, before he promptly fell forward in a dead faint.

"Whoa there!" Kaede lunged off her makeshift bench of golem pieces, managing to catch Ascion before he fell flat on his face.

The archer promptly started blushing up a storm when she realized that Ascion had buried his face in her chest.

Careful not to jostle the unconscious boy in her arms, Kaede quickly checked on Ascion's vitals. He still had a pulse and was still breathing, so he probably fainted from exhaustion. Sighing, Kaede thought about her current situation.

Since Ascion was asleep, it would be hard for her to get both of them back to town. Although she was faster and stronger than the average girl, it was still impossible for Kaede to fend off the monsters on her way back to Henesys while carrying an unconscious boy on her back.

"Well, guess there's nothing I can do about it." She muttered to herself as she slung Ascion's arm over her shoulder. "We'll have to camp out for tonight."

Slowly, Kaede started moving, looking for a relatively safe location that they could settle down in. She found her way back to the tree that they were resting on before their long battle, and deemed the location to be safe.

Kaede lowered Ascion to a sitting position at the base of the tree before digging into her backpack. Apparently, the bag held more than just her school supplies, for she pulled out a large blanket and four metal rods. Just as Kaede was about to pull out a tent, she paused, sniffing the air and squinting at the clouds.

"Hmm, don't think it's going to rain tonight." She decided, shoving the tent back into her rather small backpack. It looked rather ridiculous, a tent being shoved into a bag about three times smaller than it was, but then again, this wasn't the standard magic bag sold in stores.

Ascion had taken the standard bag and layered so many enchantments on it that a bed can easily be shoved inside.

He had to test the new enchantments he learned on _something_, after all.

The archer covered Ascion with a blanket before she went about setting up the four metal rods around them. The rods buzzed to life, creating a small barrier that surrounded the duo.

These barrier rods were standard camping equipment, used to provide campers with protection from wild monsters. The stronger the barrier, the more expensive it was. Though it can easily be replaced by setting up night watches, it was still a rather convenient tool to have, especially since it came with an in-built alarm.

After making sure that the barrier was solid, Kaede took off her bow and quiver, laying them next to her bag. She then took out her phone, sending a message to her parents explaining what she was doing and why she could not make it back home.

With that task out of the way, Kaede proceeded to pull out some homemade pork jerky for dinner. As she ate, Kaede tried to look over her homework, but with how tired she was, it wasn't much of a surprise that she didn't get far before she shoved the worksheets back into her bag.

_Screw it_. She decided. _I'll do it tomorrow_.

Kaede made sure her bow and quiver were placed within reach before she slipped under the large blanket next to Ascion. Ignoring how her heart was beating faster than usual and the slight warmth around her cheeks, Kaede snuggled closer to him. Closing her eyes, she could feel the slow rise and fall of his chest.

Within moments, Kaede was asleep.

* * *

**Well, that's it for the chapter!**

**Edit (10/6/2016): This stuff is copy and paste from the old chapter 6, so if you've read this story before the edit, then feel free to ignore this and move on.**

**I know that typically in MS fanfics, adventurers get a bag linked to another dimension or something like that to explain the crazy amount of things they can stuff into it and how it can be lugged around easily. I replaced that with a self-created dimension to store things in, partly because I think it's cool, and to explain why your inventory (used to? I haven't created a new character in quite some time, so I don't know) expands with every Job Advancement. I also don't see a bag anywhere on my Maple character no matter how hard I look, so I settled with this idea.**

**All right, with that out of the way, see you next chapter! Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, I'm back! Just thought I probably should have specified this before, but this story takes place around the time the Seal Stone is recovered in the Adventurer storyline. So yeah. On to the next chapter!**

**Edit (16/7/2016): Wow, I was a **_**really**_** bad writer.**

**Important note: I will be deleting every unedited chapter, because there's going to be a lot of things different. Actually, I should probably just take down the whole story and make a new one, but I'm too lazy, so there.**

* * *

Chapter 4:

When Ascion woke up, he felt rather comfortable and warm. Refreshed, too, since his mana reserves had replenished with sleep. Still groggy from just waking up, Ascion decided that getting a little bit more sleep was a great idea, so he snuggled into the soft and rather warm pillow that was hugging him.

… _Wait a minute. How could a pillow actually hug him?_

Ascion opened his eyes immediately. What he saw just made him sigh in exasperated fondness.

Kaede was hugging him like a body pillow, her face snuggled against his chest. Her breathing was slow and even, signalling that she was still asleep.

Holding in a chuckle so as not to disturb Kaede, Ascion carefully looked around, noting the dirt ground, the slightly shimmering barrier, the tree branches shading the two of them and the blue sky, easily drawing the conclusion that Kaede had probably set up camp after he collapsed.

He frowned when he noticed the blue sky, though. Something felt of…

Reaching into his pocket dimension, Ascion withdrew his cellphone. He unlocked it, taking a look at the time.

And promptly panicked.

"Kaede!" He roughly shook the sleeping archer. "Kaede, get up!"

Kaede blinked blearily, before flushing a bright, almost luminescent red when she noticed her position. She hastily detached herself, sitting up and turning away to grab her weapons. No, her turning away had nothing to do with how red her face was or how fast her heart was beating, no sire.

"W-What is it?" Kaede asked as she fastened her quiver over her chest.

"We're going to be late!"

…

Kaede mechanically took out her phone, checking the time. Sure enough, the digital clock showed 7.52am.

"Dammit, I thought the sky was too blue for it to be early morning-" Ascion was cut off as Kaede suddenly grabbed his wrist. Somehow, Kaede had managed to pack up everything in the time it took him to say that sentence and slung her bag over her shoulder.

"We're _running_." She hissed, embarrassment forgotten, before taking off like a rocket, Ascion flailing behind her like a banner.

"Wait- Kaede, watch where you're running! Mind the tree- HOLY FUCK! Slow down a little!"

Of course, all of Ascion's desperate pleas fell on deaf ears as the archer continued to sprint as if Crimson Balrogs were on her tail.

* * *

"My arm!" Ascion groaned pitifully, slumping in his seat as he clutched at his abused arm. "My poor, abused arm!"

"Oh don't be such a puss." Kaede waved off his complains as she stabilized her breathing. "At least I got us here on time."

"I think you've lengthened my arm." Ascion muttered pitifully as he lifted his limp arm before letting it flop bonelessly onto his desk. "I can't feel it either."

Kaede rolled her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic, Ascion. Even if you really can't feel it, and I know you can, you can still heal yourself."

"Tch. Take away my fun, why don't you." Ascion joked before he retrieved a blue potion from his pocket dimension and downed it. Then he tossed the bottle back in and took out his staff. A tap and a golden glow later, and his arm was back to normal.

"The teacher's going to be here soon." Ascion said as he stowed away his staff. "We actually blew past him on our way here."

As soon as those words left Ascion's mouth, their homeroom teacher kicked the door open, striding into the room.

"Alright, class! Shut up and sit down!" When most of the class just stopped and stared at him, their teacher slammed his palm against his desk, causing it to make an unnerving, cracking sound.

"WELL?!" Mr. Benjamin Lee roared.

The results were instantaneous, the students rushing to get back into their seats. The teacher nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, rollcall!"

"Fierce, too." Kaede remarked as the teacher started belting out names, rapidly marking attendance even before the students could answer. "I think he's the only teacher that swears in front of his students."

"I'm starting to like him more and more." Ascion smirked.

"Alright, with that done, self-intros!" Mr. Lee announced. There was a collective groan from almost everyone in class.

"What, nobody wants to introduce themselves to their 'mates?" Mr. Lee asked, then plowed on without waiting for an answer. "Well, too bad! Let's get started! Akio Shinohara!"

"_What?!_" Ascion yelped, twisting in his seat to see the white haired chess master from yesterday stand. "That guy is in our _class?!_"

"Well, its' not like we pay attention to other students most of the time." Kaede murmured.

The boy's expression was blank, maybe even a little bored, as he stood up to face the class. "Shinohara Akio. Thirteen. I am a Page." He said blandly, then sat back down.

Ascion blinked. "Well, that was brief."

"You're probably not going to be any better yourself." Kaede reminded him. He just shrugged.

"Eh, probably."

"Next, Ascion Wolf!"

"Ah, shit." Ascion muttered before he stood up.

As he expected, murmurs immediately sprang up from all around him.

"-isn't that the guy-"

"-didn't he kill someone?- "

"-sent more than twenty people to the hospital-"

Ascion ignored the murmurs. "My name's Ascion Wolf, and I am a Cleric. I dislike people who can't see the difference between truth and lies, so don't bother me." He said bluntly before sitting back down. Kaede gave him a dry look.

"Really?" She asked exasperatedly.

Ascion merely shrugged. "You know I like to be blunt."

"You're not earning yourself any points with the class here."

"Whoever said I was trying to?"

"Touché."

"More importantly, when do you think you can gather enough information on Akio?" Ascion asked, ignoring the rest of the introductions.

"Probably after lunch, so you'll be on your own today. Don't get into fights."

"No promises. People _do_ see me as the weaker one between us, after all, what with my thin body frame and my reputation as a basic-spells-only mage."

"… Just try. Please?"

"I will, but I don't think it's going to work. Your turn, Kaede."

"Right, damn." She muttered before standing up. Like Ascion, she ignored the murmurs as she gave a short self-introduction.

"Hayashi Kaede, given name Kaede." She said softly. "My class is Hunter." Immediately after she finished, she quickly sat back down.

"Still shy, I see." Ascion observed dryly.

"Shut up, Ascion." Kaede muttered.

"No matter how many times I see it, I still find it kind of amusing how headstrong you are around me, and then your entire brave and brash personality collapses the moment you have to stand in front of other people."

"I can't help it, okay?"

"You need to learn how to stop being so timid."

"_You_ need to learn how to wake up."

"That's easier than getting over shyness."

"Tch." Kaede clicked her tongue in annoyance while Ascion smirked. He won that round, and they both knew it.

"W-Whatever." Kaede said forcefully, her cheeks tinged with red. "Back to our main topic. Try not to get into trouble."

"Like I said, I'll try my best, but no promises. Now pay attention, class is almost starting."

Kaede sighed when Ascion gave her a lazy wave before plopping his head onto his table. "Good night, Ascion."

* * *

Ascion sighed as he strolled around the school. Without Kaede accompanying him, he had wolfed down his lunch (pun not intended) and now, lo and behold, he was _bored_.

He wanted to do something, anything, but there was nothing he could do. Ascion started listing out all the activities he could possibly kill time with. Again.

He had finished all of his homework, so that's out.

He had enough teleportation training with how much Kaede likes to sprint while dragging him along like a banner, so training is out as well.

He had pretty much cleaned out the small school library last year, so there's nothing new to read.

He didn't have a laptop, and nobody was allowed to use the school computers for gaming, so no luck there.

He wasn't welcomed by the other students, so he couldn't chat with anyone.

And he had all the subtlety of a clumsy ox, so helping Kaede with information gathering was a lost cause.

Ascion sighed again as he ran through the same list for the nth time. He really had nothing better to do…

"Oi, you!"

Scratch that, there's something to do now.

A predatory grin stretched across Ascion's face when he heard the shout. Anybody calling for his attention usually wanted a fight, and a fight was, in his opinion, one of the best ways to relief boredom.

_Try not to get into trouble._

The grin slipped off his face when he remembered what Kaede said. It was an old agreement between the two of them. While they didn't particularly care what anybody thought of them, they both agreed that they can make do without extra hate.

With a resigned sigh, Ascion spared a quick glace over his shoulder at the group that called out to him. A bunch of standard thugs and bullies that were common in almost every school stood behind him, leering.

Just not at him, but at a frail looking girl, whom they had backed against a wall.

The girl was pale and clearly desperate, if the way she was tightly gripping her wand was any indication. The bullies were relaxed, jeering and laughing as the girl flinched and whimpered from their remarks and any sudden movements.

Ascion quickly weighed his options. Help the girl, or walk away and stay out of trouble?

He sighed for the umpteenth time that afternoon. _Me and my bleeding heart_.

"Oi, you lot." Ascion called. When the bullies turned to face him, Ascion calmly drew his staff from his pocket dimension. "Scram." Ascion pointed his staff at them threateningly, his voice still calm and collected.

One of the bullies stepped towards Ascion, his hand rested menacingly on his pistol. "This doesn't involve you," he sneered, "so why don't you just turn around and go away?"

Ascion's response was to blast an [Energy Bolt] near his feet, causing the bully to scramble back in shock.

Ascion's predatory smile returned. "How about _you_ leave, and nobody gets hurt?"

With a snarl, the bully started to draw his pistol, but before he could take aim at Ascion, the mage had already teleported beside him, his staff in motion.

The pirate was sent flying straight up, his gun spinning out of his grip. Before he could land, he was flying again, this time to the left and straight into a wall.

The entire exchange only took three seconds.

"Alright, who's next?"

Seeing his unsettling smile, the bullies ran.

"Cowards." Ascion muttered, stashing away his staff. "Hey, you." He said gruffly. "Are you alright?"

With how unnervingly confident Ascion usually was during combat class and his passively polite yet impudent attitude towards teachers he did not like, most people would assume that Ascion would have no problems talking to people.

That couldn't have been more false.

Ascion bounced on one leg uncomfortably. He knew Kaede wasn't the only one that needed to get over her unwillingness to speak to strangers. While he wasn't as bad as the archer, he wasn't stellar either.

"A-ah, yes." The girl stammered.

"Hn. Good." Ascion gave her a light nod before turning away and leaving as quickly as possible without seeming rushed.

He had a _reputation_ to maintain, dammit, and that reputation was what kept stupid people from bothering him.

"A-ah, thank you, um…"

Ascion glanced back to see the girl looking at him inquisitively. Now that was a surprise. She didn't know who he was?

Then again, she didn't run off screaming the moment she saw him, so probably not. Maybe she was a first year and hadn't had the chance to integrate herself into the rumour mill yet.

And also, there wasn't a need for him to think so much about this, was there? Being bored out of his mind had muddled his brain too much.

Nobody ever remembered the good he did anyway.

Ascion huffed silently as he continued walking without breaking his stride. He wished he was still bored. At least being bored was better than being sour.

* * *

**Edit (16/07/2016): And that's a wrap. Please review! It really spurs me on.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys, here's a new chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 5:

"So, Kaede, what have you got?" Ascion asked.

Right after school had ended, Ascion and Kaede had visited Athena, both to let her know that they were fine and to collect their payment. Athena had joked about how their pay should have been deducted for making her worry, but she still paid them in full at the end.

That was about an hour ago. Ascion and Kaede were now relaxing atop a tree in Henesys. That was when Ascion sprung the question.

"Quite a bit." Kaede had an amused quirk to her lips. "You'll be surprised at how much girls these days like to gossip. They can literally talk about _anything_, and their spatial awareness is terrible. They didn't even realize I was there the whole time."

"So, no change from last year, I presume?"

"Absolutely none."

The two friends shared a chuckle.

"Anyway, back to the topic. Full name Shinohara Akio, no living relatives. He lives with the Warrior Instructor, Dances with Balrog. He was a thief and a hunter before he was taken in by the chieftain at the age of eight. He was homeschooled until halfway through last year, before he was transferred into Maple Middle.

"He seems to be blunt and cold, and rumour has it that he hasn't spoken a sentence that's longer than five words. As a result of that, and how he apparently "looks very cool", he is quite popular among the girls. He even has a fan club of his own. And it seems like he's holding a challenge of sorts. Every lunch break, he would find an area to set up a chess set. He would consider granting a request to the first person that beats him."

Ascion winced. "That's _brutal_. He's a Master level player. Not many people in our school can win against him."

"Why do you think he would set up such a challenge?" Kaede asked.

Ascion furrowed his brows as he thought about it carefully. "Based on what I think, there could be two possible reasons. One, he could be trying to motivate the players to work harder. Two, it could be a long term strategy to get people to leave him alone.

Take a look at it this way. Though many would flock to him with high hopes of winning, with every game played, he brutally crushes each and every one of them. This could wind up in one of two ways. First, well aware of how good Akio is at chess, the players might be motivated to work harder in hopes of beating him in the future. So he's setting a such a challenge to motivate the players.

Alternatively, some people might get disheartened instead, causing them to start to harbour spiteful feelings towards Akio because of their continued losses. Gradually, he gets left alone because people would think "I can't win against him", and all the negativity directed at him would kill any popularity he has. It's either one of the two reasons, or both."

Kaede blinked. "The second reason sounds like something only we would think of. So, he's an apathetic guy that's either really bored or good at scheming?"

"When you put it that way, it sounds so _negative_." Ascion commented. "And besides, that's just own my hypothesis. I could be wrong."

Kaede sighed. "Well, that's true. Another important bit; apparently, a lot of his challengers, be they fan girls or someone who's jealous of his popularity, have tried to hold a conversation with him, but he never answers their taunts or questions. However, it should be safe to assume that he knows about our reputation. That's all I have."

"Let's see… Akio is an orphan, doesn't like to talk, used to steal and hunt for food. He also has a fan club, but we don't know what his views are on it. So the only thing left to do is for us to get to know him better."

"Do you have a plan?"

Ascion grinned. "Well, I'm probably the only other chessmaster in the school, so I might as well give this challenge a shot."

* * *

"Whoo." Ascion whistled in relief. "I won! That took a while."

After their talk, Ascion had decided to brush up on his chess skills online before challenging Akio the next day, so the duo had retreated back to Ascion's home in a secluded corner of Ellinia.

Currently, the magician was practicing against a Master level computer program. He had currently won three times in a row.

"You took half an hour for the third game." Kaede commented. "Even though you won the first two games in ten minutes. Any reason why?"

"For the last round, I made as many stupid mistakes as I could." Ascion explained. "I wanted to see how far off the deep end I can go and still manage to pull myself back up."

"Good for you." Kaede muttered, still working at her worksheet. "Now, if only you could give me the solution to all math problems in the world."

"I do have a solution." Ascion offered.

"What?" Kaede asked, not even looking up.

"Kill all the mathematicians in the world."

"That is the most morally unsound method of tackling math that I have ever heard. And also utterly stupid cause somebody is just going to invent math again."

"Just a thought."

"A crazy one."

"I'm a very crazy person."

"That's something I think we can both agree on. Now, how do I do question 6?"

Ascion sighed. "Just have look at my worksheet, but try not to copy. The teacher will know, _I_ will know, and you will be in trouble."

"I'm not dumb, Ascion." Kaede rolled her eyes.

"Could've fooled me." Ascion joked. "You're struggling with _math_."

Kaede reached into her bag, withdrew a small rock and chucked it at the back of Ascion's head. It connected with a solid thud and an "ow".

"Not everyone is as smart as you, Ascion." Kaede countered blandly.

"I still don't get why you stuff _rocks_ into your bag." Ascion complained.

"They come in handy whenever you say something stupid."

"I know, but can't you use something softer? Like… plush toys or something?"

"Well, you know what they say: no pain, no gain."

Ascion winced. "Harsh."

* * *

After finishing up her work, Kaede decided to head home while the sun was still up. Ascion wanted to walk her home, but she had declined. The last thing she saw after bidding Ascion goodbye was the mage returning to his computer and resuming his training.

"I wonder how long it'll take to wake him up this time." Kaede mused to herself as she left. "He's not gonna sleep for a while, that's for sure. How should I wake him tomorrow?"

A pause.

"Now I'm starting to feel more and more like his mother."

* * *

After an entire night of chess games, Ascion had collapsed on his bed. It seemed like he had barely closed his eyes before he was awoken once again by Kaede shouting outside his house.

Ascion blinked at the ceiling blearily. _What time was it, anyway?_

"Ascion Wolf! If you don't get up _right now_ I'm going to march in there and drag you to school in your pyjamas!"

… Apparently late enough.

Ascion quickly rolled out of bed, groggily making his way into his bathroom for a cold shower.

The icy water immediately blew away any sleepiness left, leaving him more alert. He quickly gave himself a quick scrub, then hastily dried himself off with his towel. Wrapping the cloth around his waist, Ascion stepped out of the bathroom.

Right in front of Kaede.

The archer's jaw dropped, her face lighting up like someone had just set it aflame. Ascion just stared and blinked. There was a moment of silence between then, before-

"Well." Ascion mused aloud. "This is odd. I swear that in popular culture, our positions are supposed to be reversed."

That knocked Kaede out of her stupor. With a loud scream of apology, Kaede ran out his house so quickly that it was as if she teleported.

Ascion raised an eyebrow as his front door slammed shut.

"Well, that was something."

After a change of clothes and throwing together a sandwich, Ascion exited his house to see Kaede bashing her head against the wall of his house.

"Hey, Kaede, what are you doing?" He asked, although he already knew the answer. Revenge was sweet, after all.

"Ascion!" Kaede jolted suddenly before spinning around to face him. "I'm so sorry-"

"Don't worry about it." Ascion assured her blandly. "Enjoyed the view?"

Kaede promptly spun back to the wall and slammed her head against it.

Ascion laughed. "Morals." Ascion grinned at the furiously blushing archer. "So glad I don't have much in the way of that."

"Shut up, Ascion." Kaede glared at him before grabbing his wrist. "We're going to be late."

"W-Wait, hold up, it's only 7.40!"

Kaede leaned in a little, an angry grin stretching across her face. "_Exactly_."

And without another word, Kaede was off, dragging Ascion like a banner behind her. With the boy screaming his head off. Again.

Maybe revenge wasn't so sweet, after all.

* * *

Lunchtime.

Ascion woke up to Kaede's light shaking, yawning as he lifted his head up blearily.

"Come on, Ascion, he's leaving!"

That one sentence caught his attention. Taking a deep breath, Ascion slapped himself in the face. The sudden jolt of pain woke him up rather quickly.

"Let's go, then." Ascion muttered, shaking his head roughly. Kaede, long since used to Ascion's emergency wake up routine, simply led the way pass their shocked classmates.

After a few minutes, Kaede came to a halt. "There, right there."

Ascion looked at where Kaede was pointing to see a small crowd gathered around a table under a tree. "Wow, these people are fast."

As the duo approached the table, people began to shy away from them once they noticed their presence. Ascion ignored their actions as he continued forward.

"Checkmate." Akio announced in his usual deadpan tone. Ascion looked at the board and had to resist the urge to face palm.

"By the Goddess." Ascion muttered. "How can these challengers make such stupid mistakes? Akio actually managed to win with a Fool's Mate."

Kaede looked at the board. Only three pieces had been moved, while the rest remained in their initial positions. "That's bad, I take it?"

"It's an amateurish mistake on the challenger's part. The game was won in two turns."

Kaede winced as the challenger dejectedly got up from her seat. "That must have stung."

Ascion strode forward confidently, Kaede right beside him. Akio was gazing straight ahead, having already reset the board. His expression was still blank as he waited for his next challenger to take a seat.

"May I?" Ascion asked Akio politely. Whoever was supposed to be the next challenger apparently decided to back off and let Ascion take his or her place, if the lack of a response from the crowd was any indication.

Akio glanced up, just the barest hint of curiously in his gaze, before he extended his hand out, palm up, indicating the seat opposite of him. Ascion gave him a small, formal bow, before he seated himself, Kaede still standing beside him.

"So, may I start first?" Ascion asked. Once again, Akio merely extended his open palm as an indication of acceptance.

"Let us begin, then." Ascion smiled as he reached out to make the first move.

* * *

**And that's it! See you next chapter!**

**Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Well, hey guys! I'm not dead!**

**So, I haven't updated in this long because life. So yeah...**

**Still, here's the next chapter!**

**Chapter 6:**

* * *

Kaede stared in half fascination and half boredom as the two boys in front of her continued to duke it out on the chessboard.

The fascinating part: they had already been playing for twenty minutes, yet they were still at their first game. Ascion was down to three pawns, two knights, a rook, and his queen. Akio had four pawns, a rook, a bishop and his queen, so the game was still rather intense.

The boring part: _the game has been going on for more than twenty minutes_.

A person can only stare at two boys moving pieces of plastic across a checkered board for so long before getting bored.

Based on what Kaede have learnt, all of Akio's previous challengers had tried to get him to talk, only to be met with a stony silence.

Ascion did no such thing, and the entire game was deathly silent save for the clicking of chess pieces and short announcements of "check". Both players concentrated fully on outplaying his opponent.

Which made things all the more boring since Kaede couldn't even chat with Ascion.

At the beginning of the game, both sides took their time to make their moves, but now, with few remaining pieces upon the board, the game sped up. Clicks and checks came more frequently.

Finally, after a few more minutes, Ascion slid his knight forward.

"Checkmate." Ascion gave Akio a small smile.

The crowd immediately burst into quiet chatter. Akio scanned the board, before he nodded. "Indeed." He murmured. Upon hearing that one word, several onlookers left immediately, no longer interested. After all, Akio only promised a request to the very first winner. Most stayed out of curiosity, though.

Akio looked at Ascion quizzically. His question was clear.

_So, what do you want?_

Ascion simply gave Akio a smile. "There isn't much time before the bell rings." Ascion commented. "Around ten minutes more?"

"Two and a half." Kaede corrected blandly after checking her phone.

Ascion winced. "Yikes. Alright, two minutes before the bell rings. Well then, shall we play again tomorrow?"

Akio's eyebrow raised, the slightest amount of surprise visible in his eyes. He quickly composed himself and nodded, before he started to put away his chess set. The remaining crowd immediately broke out into whispers. Not that Ascion cared.

As soon as the set was packed, Akio stood up, as did Ascion. Akio stared at Ascion in the eye for a few moments before he spoke.

"You are strange. Your request, unexpected."

"Life's full of surprises." Ascion replied.

"Indeed." And to the surprise of everybody in the vicinity, Akio gave Ascion a faint smile.

A new wave of chatter broke out. The smile fell off Akio's lips immediately, replaced by his patented expressionless face. Without another word, he left.

Ascion and Kaede trailed behind him back to class. "So, what do you think?" Kaede asked.

"He's got a good head on his shoulders. Quite intelligent. I could've lost a couple of times if I hadn't seen his traps. I'll try to make conversation next time, hopefully. Ask him about, you know, us."

"You're saying that is as if we're a couple."

Ascion rolled his eyes. "Of course not, Kaede." Facing away from the archer, Ascion missed the flash of disappointment that crossed her face. "I meant our… reputation."

"I see." The look disappeared almost immediately as the archer hummed in agreement. "That might be a problem."

"Hopefully, it wouldn't be."

* * *

_Strange._ If Akio was asked to describe the two people seated in front of him, that would be it.

Before all this, people either stayed away from him or tried to kill him. After his… _adoption_, people always wanted something from him.

The females reeked of pheromones, always wanting him or his time to please themselves.

The males made their jealousy known, always wanting to one-up him for their own satisfaction.

The adults wanted his attention when they were in that place called a… a classroom.

His guardian… He wasn't sure what his guardian wanted. But adults couldn't be trusted anyway. People can't be trusted in general, more so if they were adults. They were the ones who knew how to lie well.

He thought he had seen the last of the black haired boy after their rematch. Except that hadn't been the case.

The boy came the next day. And the next. And the day after that.

_How curious._

The magician was different during their second match, more cheerful, more relaxed. Most likely due to the lack of people staring or glaring at the black haired boy. Of course he had noticed all the looks. They were too obvious to be missed.

The magician also started to ask some questions. Though he hadn't responded, the magician didn't seem perturbed. None of those twitches or mutterings to indicate his annoyance or irritation.

The magician asked the same questions during their next match. Still polite, still jovial, no irritation to be seen. In fact, it even seemed like the magician enjoyed playing against him. Or rather, the magician enjoyed spending time with him.

He wasn't sure how to feel about that. Usually, anybody who sought his company tried to make him speak. Even when he did, they persisted in making him speak _more_. Never understanding that he just was not comfortable with talking, always trying to forcefully make him change.

He hated that.

But the magician always seemed satisfied with his curt answers. After the first, strange question about whether he was afraid of the magician himself and his companion, the black haired boy seemed content with asking about mundane things.

How his day was, whether he's well, or how well he's coping with schoolwork, little things like that.

Sometimes, the magician's companion, the orange haired archer, would join in. Unlike the other females, she did not seem to want anything, just like the boy. Otherwise, she was content with just listening, or going off to one side to read.

One thing for sure was that the archer was always by the magician's side. That, and the girl would force both the magician and himself to eat, should lunch be forgotten.

Gradually, the boy moved on to more personal things. His hobbies, what he liked or disliked, how he learned to play chess so well. Though he had responded to those with small shakes of his head at first, the magician assured him that he does not have to answer if he does not want to.

A week passed. Their small, almost one-sided conversations continued. The magician never pushed him to answer, only asking questions and accepted his head shakes without complain. Eventually, he started to answer. He was mildly surprised by himself when he did.

When he thought about it in the silence of his room, he found that he enjoyed the company of the boy. He trusted the magician more than anybody else, save his deceased family, as miniscule as that trust was. Enough to be able to talk about himself.

Then, they appeared. Just like they always did. And he beat them back, just as he always did. His injuries forced him to stay at home, though.

The next day, the magician did not wait till their regular games at lunchtime. Instead of the usual wave the boy gave him every morning, the magician had walked up to him and asked about his injuries.

Almost everyone he met had questioned his injuries, but he felt more morbid curiosity than concern from them. Yet, he could sense how worried the magician was.

_Is this how it feels like to be touched by someone's kindness?_

… _Strange. Strange, but pleasant._

* * *

It had been three weeks since their first game, and the mage could safely say that he liked the white haired warrior. Which was giving him a headache, because he was getting increasingly worried by the day.

He had learned a few things about Akio so far. The warrior was always punctual, had average grades, and was a very good fighter. He ignored anybody he didn't like, always wore full plate armour and never, ever takes his armour off. Ascion had a feeling that if the school rules had not forbidden headgear, Akio would have worn a helmet as well.

When Akio had failed to show up for school the first time, Ascion hadn't been overly worried, thinking that he was most probably sick.

Imagine his surprise when the warrior showed up the next day covered in bandages that were just barely visible under all his armour.

Although Akio had assured him that he was fine, Ascion couldn't help but be worried. Akio was no slouch when it came to combat, that much was certain during the combat classes held twice a week. None of his matches lasted more than ten seconds.

Then again, neither did Ascion's nor Kaede's, so maybe their classmates were just weak.

After the end of the second week, Akio returned to school with even more bandages. Nothing was broken, but it seems as if someone had tossed Akio into a den of hungry wolves, with only a stick to protect himself with. Ascion reluctantly left the subject alone when Akio insisted that he was fine.

The third time, though, finally pushed Ascion over the edge. He was most certainly not amused when Akio went missing the previous day only to return looking like a mummy.

Which was why the two were currently shadowing Akio home.

"We should not be doing this." Kaede muttered. "We _really_ should not be doing this."

"C'mon, aren't you worried about him? You saw how people reacted to his injuries. It's like they were asking just to stock up on juicy gossip rather than out of concern. I'm going to make sure he's fine."

"That's good and all, but you_ are _aware that shadowing somebody is technically a crime?"

"It's not."

"It's called stalking, Ascion."

"I mean it's not a crime if you don't get caught."

Kaede face-palmed. "Forget it."

Oddly, though, Akio did not returned to his presumed home at his guardian's place. Instead, he immediately left Perion, heading up into the dusty stone plateaus and hills the dry town was famous for.

They were currently hiding behind some of the many boulders that dot Perion's landscape. Their target did not seem to have noticed them yet, as Ascion had been quite liberal in his use of [Teleport] to make sure both he and Kaede stayed out of sight.

Mostly on himself, as Kaede was quite good at finding places to hide and hiding in general, what with the dexterity and experience that came with being an archer.

"Where's he going?" Ascion muttered with a frown. Akio had been walking along the stone paths for quite some time, getting further and further away from Perion. Despite his numerous injuries, the warrior barely slowed down when monsters attacked him, killing them with a single blow of his sword and continuing on as though they were never there.

"That's why we're following him, isn't it?"

"I know, I'm just saying."

The wind that was commonplace in Perion suddenly changed directions, blowing at their backs. Ascion ignored the change in favour of quickly and silently dispatching a Wild Boar before it could do anything that might alert Akio of their presence.

Just then, Akio moved behind a small hill, hiding himself from sight. Ascion and Kaede follow suit, making sure to keep a certain distance from the white haired boy.

The moment they rounded the corner however, they came face to face with Akio, the warrior's expression as bland as ever. His bandaged face and the dry, sand coloured surroundings made him look like an undead straight out of a horror movie.

"Holy-!" Ascion yelped, startled. Kaede let out a squeak as she jerked back in surprise. Akio did not seem amused.

Then again, Akio always had a blank face, so it's not like they could tell even when he _was_.

"Why follow me?" Akio asked, his tone still as bland as ever. If he was annoyed at being followed, he did a good job at hiding it.

"We were worried." Ascion answered honestly. "With your skills at fighting, not many things on Victoria Island can injure you this badly, so we wanted to make sure you weren't doing anything stupid."

Akio's expression gained a hint of curiosity. "Victoria Island?"

Ascion raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Victoria Island? The island we're on right now? That has the towns Henesys, Perion, Ellinia, Kerning, Lith Harbour, Sleepywood and Nautilus?"

"Ah." Akio nodded. "I see." He paused. "Thank you, but no."

Ascion blinked in surprise. "For telling you about where we are?"

"For caring. And no. Not doing anything stupid."

"Oh. Uh, you're welcome?"

Akio nodded. "Come, then." He turned around and started to walk again.

Ascion and Kaede exchanged looks. "He just invited us to follow him, didn't he?" Ascion asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, he did." Kaede replied, surprised. "I thought he was going to tell us to back off. I know I would've, if I was in his position."

"Sweet!" Ascion cheered, choosing to ignore the last part of what Kaede said. "He's opening up to us!"

"He was already opening up to us, with how persistent you have been." Kaede rolled her eyes. "I'm just surprised we hadn't crushed all the trust that we had built up with our creepy stalker stunt."

Again, Ascion pointedly ignored Kaede's last comment, looking off to the side. "Come on, let's catch up before he leaves us behind."

Kaede just shook her head, grinning wryly as Ascion hastily started after Akio. "Whatever you say."

* * *

_Clink. Clink. Clink._

With another strike of flint against stone, the sparks finally caught. Within a minute, a small, crackling fire had been started.

"Sit." Akio waved around the fire, before he disappeared into the nearby cave.

Ascion and Kaede settled themselves around the fire. The rest of the trek had taken another half an hour, and it had ended at the cave they were currently sitting in front of. Ascion had tried to break the silence of the trip by chatting, and Akio replied with his customarily short answers.

While this created an illusion of tenseness and awkwardness, Ascion chose to see it as normal for Akio, since the warrior barely speaks anyway.

Within moments, Akio had exited the dark cave. He was now wearing a helmet that had a single, Y-shaped slit in the face plate to allow him to see and breathe. He held a large, heavy looking spear in his hand, his sword and shield nowhere to be seen. A similar spear was strapped to his back.

"Stay." Akio gestured to his spear. "I will get food."

"Ah, um, thanks?"

As soon as the warrior had stalked off, Ascion took another look around. The sun was still high in the sky, although if Ascion had to fathom a guess, he would say that it was about three in the afternoon. A little early to be eating dinner, but hey, it's Akio's place. He calls the shots, and Ascion wasn't about to contradict him.

Akio's hideout was a simple cave carved into the base of a large mountain. The mountain was steep, much steeper than what a person could easily climb, and the cave seemed rather extensive, from what little Ascion can see.

"Why do you think he brought us here?" Kaede asked.

"I don't know, but I'm sure he'll tell us when he gets back." Ascion hesitated. "If he doesn't come back, it's fine. I brought my map, so I can get us back to Perion."

While Ascion had initially brought the map to help get them out of the dusty wasteland if they had lost track of Akio, it could be of use now in case Akio had brought them all the way here just to abandon them on unfamiliar territory.

Ascion felt bad about it, but it remains a fact that he still could not trust the white haired warrior fully, not just yet. Ascion had not been openly trusting towards anybody that was not on his list of people-that-can-be-trusted since he was eight. That was maybe half a year after befriending Kaede.

On a side note, that list currently consists of four people. Five, actually, but he had never really spoken to the last one.

"The magic one you stole?" Kaede raised an eyebrow.

"Of course it's the magic one, or we'll definitely be lost, since neither of us have visited Perion much. And I _borrowed_ it, Kaede, not stole."

"You took it without permission, so I would say that you stole it." Kaede sniped.

"Except I took it from my father's study, and I plan to return it. Someday. Besides, you know my family's rich enough not to care." Ascion countered.

Without him noticing, the two of them had quickly fallen into a comfortable banter. The tenseness he didn't even realise had built up drained out of him as he traded playful verbal jabs with his best friend.

"Trouble?" A voice suddenly spoke up behind him.

"Holy-!" Ascion yelped, jumping in shock and spinning around. A boar was slung over the warrior's shoulder like a sack of flour, his spear hanging grotesquely from its eye.

"You two were arguing. Problem?" Akio asked, easily tossing the large boar to the ground beside them.

"No, it's kind of like our pastime." Kaede answered as she took deep breaths to steady her heart. How had the boy with such a large weight on his shoulder, _wearing full armour no less_, managed to sneak up on them?

"I see." Akio nodded, before grabbing the spear stuck in the dead animal's eye and yanking it out. He tossed the spear next to the mouth of the cave, unstrapping the unused one on his back and dropping it next to the bloody one.

Settling down between the cave and the fire, Akio unsheathed a thick, heavy knife from his back and went about skinning the boar. He then carefully and easily removed all of the boar's organs, tossing them to the side. Its skin was stretched out on the ground, the carcass placed on top.

Neither Ascion nor Kaede balked at the sight, although Kaede turned slightly green. Although both of them had cleaned and gutted their fair share of animals, Kaede always felt bad for doing it. Ascion was mostly unaffected by the bloody task.

"You're not going to bury the organs?" Kaede asked.

Akio glanced at her before he placed his bloody knife next to the carcass. "Ground is too hard." He explained. "The organs will vanish themselves."

As was normal in their world, all wild animals and monsters dissipated in time. Unless preserved, the time it takes for them to disappear varies, with some disappearing within several hours and some over the course of a week.

Kaede was not very satisfied with his answer, however. "Doesn't the thick scent of blood cause you to lose your appetite?"

"No." Akio answered as he started to tear out the boar's skeleton with his bare hands as though it was child's play. To him, it probably was, all things considered. He glanced at the archer. "Does it bother you?"

"A little." Kaede admitted.

Akio then turned to Ascion. "And you?"

"Not really." Ascion responded. "I've been handling animal blood and guts since I was little. I wouldn't be alive otherwise."

Akio looked at Ascion, his perpetually bland expression disappearing as curiosity crept onto his face. "Why? No family?" He asked.

"Nah, I've got one." Ascion scoffed. "They don't feed me, though, and if they do, they don't care if any of my siblings steal my food. Which they do. I had to scavenge for food in the kitchens, in the bins where the chefs toss the unwanted meat and organs."

"Your family, wealthy?" Akio asked. It was a fair question. While most people would think that Ascion came from a poor family that didn't have enough food to feed everyone, Akio had picked up on two important details that says otherwise.

Only wealthy families have their own chefs. Also, people normally buy their meat from butchers, while families with adventurers normally clean and gut their game out in the wild. This means that there normally aren't any organs to throw away.

Ascion snorted. "Yeah, they're rich. Want their meat so fresh that they only kill the animals in the kitchen itself. Picky about which parts of the meat they want too, so they would throw away perfectly edible stuff." The mage shrugged. "More for me, though."

"Ah." Akio nodded in understanding. "Must have been hard. Bastard child?"

Despite the crude and rather rudely phrased question, Ascion wasn't affected by it. "Nope. Birth records show that I'm 100% legitimate." Ascion tried to sound nonchalant about it, but he knew he failed miserably. Even he could hear the bitterness in his voice. "I never got why I was treated like that."

"Ah." Akio nodded. "My apologies, brought up bad memories."

"Oh, it's fine." Ascion waved off his concern with a smile. "I'm over it now. Living by myself and all that."

Akio finished tearing the boar skeleton out, tossing the removed bones onto the organs. He then picked up his knife and started to roughly hack the carcass into smaller, more manageable pieces, stacking the small pieces on another side of the boar skin.

"What of your family, Kaede?" Akio asked. "Only if you are comfortable speaking." He tagged on.

She shrugged. "Nothing too interesting. Got a pretty nice family, though mom's a half elf and dad's a human, so I'm a quarter elf." She brushed some of her hair behind her ear. "See? My ear's kinda pointed, but that's about all I have to show of my elven side."

Ascion snorted. "You definitely inherited their grace. I once saw you jump off the second floor and landed without a scratch."

Akio cocked his head. "Elves just returned, right?"

Akio was referring to the rediscovery of Elluel, the city of elves. About three years ago, the city was found still half frozen from an evil god's curse. Which is, of course, too short a time for any of the recently awoken elves to have a teenage daughter.

Kaede just chuckled wryly. "No. Though rare, some elves weren't in Elluel when the curse struck a century ago. I'm one of their descendants."

Akio didn't respond with his by-now customary "ah". His hands stopped moving as his head suddenly perked up, nose twitching and eyes staring at one of the surrounding rock formations.

Ascion could not help but stare when Akio _snarled_.

Gone was the emotionless and calm face he usually had. His muscles were tense, and his teeth were bared. He forcefully stabbed his knife into the boar carcass before standing up and stalking into his cave.

The two friends stared at the shadowed entrance of the cave, gaping. After an awkward moment, Kaede piped up timidly. "Was it something I said?"

"I don't think so." Ascion replied, still a little shocked at the sudden change.

Akio exited his cave soon after, his sword and shield ready. A large, two handed hammer was strapped to his back, and an axe hung from his hip. He was scowling fiercely. "Leave." Akio growled at them.

"What?" Ascion blinked at the abrupt order.

Akio seemed to calm himself slightly as the scowl faded from his face. "My apologies. Please, leave. Quickly."

Ascion scrambled to his feet, his hand clenched tightly around his staff. Kaede got up beside him. Akio's odd behaviour was starting to unnerve both of them. "We're not leaving till you tell us what's going on."

Akio shook his head. "Please, go."

"You wouldn't snarl like that unless something's really wrong, Akio. I've seen you maintain your poker face during combat class or when bullies somehow think you're a prime target. This is different, it's troubling you, and I'm not leaving till you tell me what it is."

Akio studied Ascion silently, and Ascion stared back, arms crossed. After a few moments, Akio turned his gaze onto Kaede.

Kaede rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm staying."

Akio nodded. "Very well… I will tell-"

Kaede suddenly spun, whipping out her bow and nocking an arrow fluidly. She drew back the string and fired the arrow – which was starting to give off a red glow – into what seemed to be a solid rock wall about five meters behind them.

The [Arrow Bomb] sank into the wall before exploding spectacularly. Pieces of rock rained down around them as Kaede stalked forward, heedless of the smoke, then reached down and grabbed something buried in the rubble.

With a heave, Kaede dragged the buried object out easily and threw it near the fire.

"I thought I heard something moving behind that wall." Kaede returned her bow into its holster on her quiver as she looked down at what she had pulled out from the rocks.

It was a rabbit the size of a man. It was fat, covered in white fur, and dressed in black clothes. A glint in the rubble caught Kaede's attention, so she dug in the rubble some more.

When she dug out the object, she stiffened, recognizing it immediately. The archer tossed what she found on top of the groaning rabbit-man.

A black cap with an insignia at the front.

Ascion tensed the moment he saw the insignia. It was a purple gem, with white wings coming out from either side. He recognized the symbol, how could he not? It was the symbol of an infamous terrorist organization.

"Akio." Ascion said slowly, tearing his eyes away from the cap to look at the warrior. "Why is there a member of the Black Wings here?"

The only answer Akio gave was a growl as he stabbed his sword into the rabbit-man's head.

* * *

**And that's a wrap! Please drop a review if you can, and see you guys in the next chapter!**


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